I first saw her as I was boarding the trolley before work. She was a small girl with a red dress, black leggings, and a sparkly butterfly clip holding back her short brown hair. This of course was perfectly ordinary, she was simply sitting on a bench, presumably waiting for another trolley. She was not alone however and it was what sat next to her that held my attention. It was a small, gray elephant.

I told myself I was imagining things and went to my usual seat in the trolley. But the next day I saw them again, still sitting side by side. The elephant, which I decided must be a baby, was sitting next to the bench and the girl was leaning her head against it. As I stared, I almost swore the elephant looked at me and waved its trunk in greeting.

All day at work I could think of nothing but of what I had seen. Where had they come from? Was it legal to have an elephant on city property? Who was taking care of the girl? Certainly, she was too young to be by herself. And can elephants wave?

My thoughts were interrupted as Ollie, my secretary brought in a large stack of papers he had finished printing for me. He nearly tripped as he came in, spilling a few of the papers. “Sorry Mr. Parish.” He bent down to gather them up, his face turning as red as his hair.

As a young man first going into business, I had been under the impression that secretaries were young women with elegant legs and well-manicured nails. Naturally, Ollie was a bit of a disappointment.

Ollie stood up again and dropped the stack, a bit loudly, in front of me. His face lit up in that goofy smile that always reminds me of a puppy expecting treats. “Anything else you want me to do for you Mr. Parish?”

“No.” I riffled through the papers.

“I categorized them for you sir.”

“That was unnecessary.”

“Had to fix the printer too, it’s a bit wonky these days. If you want, I’ll go buy you another one.”

“Don’t bother.” I tried to look busy as I read through the papers, hoping that he would go away and give me some peace. Like everything to do with Ollie I was disappointed in this.

“It’s no bother, really, I’ll just get my bike and-”

“Ollie!” I set down the papers and gave him a look. It must have been a very meaningful one because he stopped talking and shuffled out of the room.

During my next moment of leisure (while I was having coffee at a little café near my office) I again thought over what I had seen at the trolley station. Once again however, I was interrupted.

Priya, one of the baristas, rushed over as soon as she spied me. She flipped open a little hand mirror and checked herself before coming to take my order. “Good afternoon Urban”, her voice trilled as she beamed at me. She always calls me by my first name, even though I have no recollection of ever telling her what it was.

I opened my wallet and took out a couple bills. “I’d like a-”

Priya interrupted me, “a pumpkin spice latte and a cinnamon roll.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Good memory.”

She giggled, her dangling gold earrings swinging side to side. “You order the same thing every day during autumn. Except on Fridays. On Fridays you usually get black coffee instead.”

That Priya would memorize my orders was hardly a bigger surprise than the fact she knew my name and I soon shrugged it off. “Well, go get it then.”

Instead of doing as I asked, as baristas are supposed to do, she rested her elbows on the counter and looked at the book that lay open next to me. “What book is that?”

“John Adams by David McCullough.”

“Ah! It’s a big book. You like history?”

“Sometimes.”

“I prefer fiction, do you read fiction?”

“No, not much.”

“Oh”. She looked a bit deflated. “I don’t read fiction much either.” Then she brightened up again. “Where did you get that book? I’d like to try reading it.”

“The bookstore on main street.”

“You like reading. You always bring books into the café.”

There was nothing I could say to this so I just nodded.

“Anyway. If I get the book maybe we could talk about it. You busy next weekend?” She glanced coyly at me, tucking a strand of loose black hair behind her ear.

I looked at her curiously. “Yes. I’ve got business to do.”

Her face fell. “I just thought that- oh never mind.” She stayed there, sighing, and stealing abject glances at me.

“Priya?” As I spoke, she looked up at me, a hopeful light in her dark eyes.

“Yes?”

“I’ve got a very busy schedule today; would you mind getting my order?”

The pumpkin spice latte was steamy and the glaze on the cinnamon roll dripped off over the sides. It was the perfect way to relax in the midst of a hard workday.

When I got off the trolley on the way home, I looked for the girl and her elephant. They weren’t there. Again, I wondered if I had imagined it. Surely a girl with an elephant would attract a lot of attention, but no one else seemed to notice them.

I climbed the stairs to my apartment. I stopped when I got to the gray wood door with the number 27 on a little silver plate next to it and felt around in my coat pocket for my keys. They weren’t there. I groaned, realizing that I had left them in my briefcase. I sat down on the hall floor and unlatched my shiny black briefcase; the kind people always expect a businessman to have.

Mr. Chou, the janitor, passed by me wheeling his cart. He stopped to look down and laugh at me. “Having trouble Mr. U. Will Parish?” He laughed again. Having a name like Urban William Parish is bound to make you the butt of jokes sooner or later. For having such an ominous name, it sure gave Mr. Chou hours of amusement. He had teased me about it ever since I moved into the apartment, five years before.

“Very funny. I’m trying to find my keys.”

He chuckled. “Is that it?” He pointed to the opposite end of the briefcase where, in fact, my keys were tucked into a little pouch.

“Yes, thank you.” I picked them up, shut the briefcase, and stuck the correct key in the keyhole.

“Hey, you should come by sometime. Remember, my room’s number 9, on the ground floor.”

I sighed. How could I forget? He reminded me daily and I had yet to accept his offer. “Thank you, I will consider it.” I got the door open and shut it behind me.

Mr. Chou’s voice called through the letter slot, “not very exciting, just me and my cat. But you’re more than welcome to come over for a sandwich or something.” His jolly laughter was heard again, apparently for no reason this time and soon I heard the sound of his cart wheels receding down the hallway.

A few days later, Wednesday I think it was, I saw the girl and her elephant for the third time. For days I had looked for her but she had mysteriously disappeared. Now she had reappeared and, in a moment of foolish recklessness, I decided to stay at the station and take a later trolley. I wanted to know once and for all what she was doing there, without parents and with a decidedly questionable companion.

She smiled at me as I approached. “Hi!”

“Uh, hi.” I sat next to her, wondering where to begin. The elephant flapped its ears, shooing away a fly that had landed on him. “Are you waiting for a trolley?”

“Yup! We’re going to the park.” She swung her legs, which were too short to reach the ground. Her sparkly butterfly clip slipped down a bit, letting a bit of hair get in her face. She didn’t bother to fix it.

“Do your parents know you’re here?”

“They’re not worried about me.” It wasn’t exactly an answer to my question but I decided to leave it at that.

I took a deep breath. “Are elephants allowed on trolleys?” The question sounded stupid, even to me. Of course they weren’t!

The girl shrugged. “I don’t know. No one ever seems to notice Hubert.”

“Hubert?”

“My elephant!”

I stared in amazement. How could people not notice a little girl traveling alone with a baby elephant?

She seemed to read my thoughts, for she said gaily, “you don’t notice many things either.”

“What do you mean?”

“In fact, a lot of people don’t notice things that are right in front of them. For example, look at that woman over there.” She pointed a small finger at an old woman resting on another trolley bench. “Have you seen her before?”

I nodded. “Sure, she’s always at the trolley station.”

The girl looked sad. “That’s truer than you know. She actually lives on that bench; I don’t think she has a home. But no one ever bothers to notice.”

I looked at the woman again. It had never occurred to me to wonder why she was always there, although now the answer seemed quite obvious.

“You don’t even notice the beautiful things around you”, the girl continued. “Look up.”

I glanced overhead and chuckled. “I’ve seen the sky before.”

“You’ve seen it, but you don’t really pay attention to it. Look closer.”

Deciding to humor her, I looked up, studying it closely. “What am I supposed to find?”

“Isn’t it a pretty shade of blue? It’s the same pretty shade as your eyes.”

No one had ever said my eyes were pretty before and I smiled wryly. “I don’t think many people notice my eyes.”

“Priya does. She notices a lot of things about you.”

It was strange that this little girl knew so much about me, but then again everything about her was strange, so I responded casually, “true. Kind of creepy how she knows things.”

“She likes you; you know.”

“I didn’t know.”

“Like I said”, the girl sighed. “You hardly notice anything. Like Ollie.”

“What about Ollie?” The baby elephant trundled over and sat down in front of me. Without thinking, I began to stroke his soft head.

“Ollie is a hard and honest worker. He deserves a raise and probably a promotion too.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You’re very opinionated. Do you have any other advice for me?”

“Yep! You need to go visit Mr. Chou. He’s lonely and no one ever visits him. It’s hard being an adult I think.”

“You’re telling me?”

All this time I had been obediently looking at the sky and my neck was beginning to ache. I didn’t know why I was still doing it; I just felt a strange urge to listen to this girl.

“What do you think that cloud is shaped like?”, she asked.

“Hmm. A blob I guess.”

She groaned. “Goodness. Can’t you see anything? You walk through life with your eyes wide open and you miss everything! Anyway, I think it’s shaped like a duck.”

I shook my head. Now that I looked at it closer, I realized what shape it was. “It’s a castle.”

She giggled and remarked softly, “that’s better.”

Another trolley pulled up. She nodded towards it. “Better get on or you’ll never get to work on time. Ollie’s been waiting for you half an hour already.”

“How do you know these things?”

She smiled secretively. “I would explain but you don’t have time.”

The trolley doors were closing and I had just enough time to hop on and find a seat. I was fortunate enough to get one by the window and I looked out, hoping to catch another glimpse of the girl and her elephant. Their bench was empty however, as empty as if they had never been there.

“You’re going crazy Urban”, I muttered. “You’re going crazy.” I shifted in my seat, trying to get more comfortable, and noticed something sticking out of my coat pocket. I took it out. It was a sparkly red butterfly clip. I glanced at the trolley bench again. It was still empty.

I am a grown man. I have no need for butterfly clips. And yet, I have kept it. It stays in my coat pocket as a sort of good luck charm. Mr. Chou teases me about it every Saturday when I go to visit him.

I never saw that little girl again, or her elephant either. But sometimes, when I’m looking up at the sky, I think I see their figures outlined in the clouds.